Strawberry Rock

Stars. Too many to count. Each one brighter than the previous. 

"Are you sure we are allowed to be out here?" Megan whispers into the darkness. 

Her boyfriend Rigel lays beside her on the cool rock, "Relax Meg. My brothers and I used to come out here all the time as kids. It's fine. Trust me."

He never talked about his brothers. All Megan knew was that they were older and twins. Castor and Pollux. Named after some of the brightest stars in the skies. 

It was mystery what happened to them. They snuck out together the weekend before senior graduation. When the morning came, their truck was found at the trailhead of Strawberry Rock, but the boys were nowhere to be found. A search party went on for weeks, and they found nothing. No belongings, no footprints, not a single memory that the twins had even been there.

It was silent. Only a breeze cutting through the redwoods created a little white noise, but there was no presence of any being besides Megan and Rigel. Even then, Megan wasn't quite sure they were even there. It was so silent. 

"Is it hard? Being here?" Megan rolls on her side to look at the pale boy. It was already known that he was so white, but under then moonlight, he seemed to be glowing.

Rigel takes a deep breath and glances over at her, "What do you mean?"

It was obvious that she knew what he meant, but she wasn't sure if this was some sort of signal to stop the conversation there. Taking a risk, she asks again, "Is it hard to be here without them? I mean this is where they disappeared, babe."

There's another moment of silence, and Megan begins to get uneasy. 

"You know," Rigel's voice cuts through the air. "They told me they were coming here that night. I heard them packing up their gear, so I started getting ready too. I crept into their room, and they told me to stay."

Another breeze glided through the air, tickling trees into making music with their branches. The scent of musty earth rises from the ground and onto the peak we lounged on. 

"Not once had my brothers told me I couldn't go with them. I almost snitched them out just so they'd have to stay. But they continued to shush me and put me back in bed." 

He takes his hands from behind his head and frowns at them in his lap. "Castor and Pollux have come to this peak probably hundreds of times. For every single one, I came with them."

He turns his head and stares at Megan with a sorrow she could never know. He whispers, "I should have gone with them. I should have woken mom up. I should have called the cops sooner or-"

Megan tackles Rigel with a hug as he sobs into her shoulder. She strokes his hair and whispers, "You were fourteen, Rigel. No one blames you for that." 

They laid there until the Rigel's cries grew to hiccuped breaths. He pulls away and looks back up at the stars, "Do you know why I brought you out here tonight?"

Megan was cautious in her response, "You wanted to show me something? We came out here pretty early so I thought you wanted to see the sunrise."

Still staring up, he places his right arm around her shoulders to pull her close and uses his left to point at the sky, "My brothers are here tonight."

His finger led to two stars that were brighter than any other on the sky's dome. One shined white and the other golden. Together, they made the glorious Gemini constellation.

He turns, grabs her by the shoulders and stares frantically into her eyes, "Megan. I know they're still out there."

Megan stares back bewildered, "What do you mean?"

"No bodies, no footprints, and no bags that they took with them," He retorted. "They have to still be out there. No one just vanishes."

Slowly, Megan takes his hand from her shoulders and clasps them in her lap. "Rigel, that was almost four years ago. They spent months looking for Pollux and Castor. They didn't find anything, what makes you sure you can?"

He rips away from her, grasps at his own hands like Megan some how burned him. "You don't believe me."

It wasn't even a question and Megan wasn't going to deny it. She stares ahead at the dark horizon where the starry sky meets the black ocean, "Rigel... I don't want to see you tear yourself apart over the impossible." 

Shooting to his feet, he screams, "They're still out there! I know it! Why don't you just believe me?!"

His anger slices through the air and instantaneously, the night-sky collapses on itself. Stars collide with one another. The wind howls as the explosions light up the atmosphere. Megan curls into a ball, cups her ears, and squeezes her eyes closed. The Earth quakes and the ground tosses her around but she stays clutched in a ball. 

As quickly as it started, the air grows silent. But this time, there was no white noise. No rustling of leaves, moving of rubble beneath her, or even her own breathing. The thought of her dying rushes her to open her eyes and look around. 

Everything was... normal. The stars seemed to be in place but the sky is starting to turn pink and blue from the rising sun. The peak was intact, no rock or pebble seem different than when her and Rigel marched up to the top.

After searching her surroundings, she concluded that everything was normal. Then it dawned on her with the rising sun. Rigel. He wasn't there. The ground beside her showed no sign of him ever laying next to him. His backpack and thermos were nowhere to be found. She crawled to the edge of the peak and peered down the 200-foot cliff. Still no sign of him. 

Megan falls back and stares around astonished. She wants to scream his name. She wants to climb down this peak and search the valley below for his presence but something stops her. She remembers the supernatural blast of stars, the forces of atomic bombs multiplied by millions, the groaning of trees as they are tugged by the wind. 

Still, Megan says and does nothing. She sits in the dirt, staring at the sunrise, wondering where all the stars went.

---

The cops called her hysterical when they found her that morning. Megan spent three days in the hospital from severe dehydration that caused her to hallucinate. But even after she recovered, her story stayed the same. Even though it shook her entire world, not a single soul said they felt and saw the same thing that night. Local newspapers blamed Megan for the disappearance of the third son in the Wallis family. Churches used her as an example as to why parents needed to bring their children to youth group. Schools shared her story as to why narcotics shouldn't be used by teens.

All of the law enforcement searched for his body, but no one could find Rigel. "It's like the twins all over again," people said. Strawberry Rock closed, and was never reopened.

Years passed. Megan graduated. Without Rigel. She moved out of Trinidad. Without Rigel. She went to college. Without Rigel. She lived her life. Without Rigel. 

The ten-year anniversary of Rigel's 'death' approached while Megan was living in San Francisco. She lived quite some time without thinking about him. Until a month prior to the anniversary.

As soon as Megan was asleep, her body was pulled into a dream, for so she thought. She was there, on the night Rigel disappeared. Except, she wasn't really there. She watched her teenage self from a godly view. She watched as Rigel sobbed. She watched him scream. She saw the entire explosion of stars occur again. 

After the noise ceased, Megan watched her young self crawl out of her fetal position but this time Rigel was standing over top of her. It wasn't Rigel though. His mouth moved, but no noise came out. He searched to make eye contact with young Megan, but her gaze peered right though him. He grasped at his clothing, trying to confirm that he was there. But he wasn't. 

As she peered into her dream, she found herself confused at vision. Was it her memory playing tricks to give her false hope? Is this her subconscious trying to give some explanation to her childhood trauma? 

With the same tugging force, she was startled awake by her alarm. Dazed and confused, she clambers out of bed, trying to shake the fantasy out of her head. 

--- 

The following night, Megan took some melatonin, hoping for a restful sleep. But as soon as her eyes closed, she was pulled back into the night of Rigel's disappearance. 

He was there, pacing in front of the young frozen Megan. From his frantic gestures, and lips moving at a pace that no human could understand, she could tell he was trying to find an explanation. 

From the darkness, came a bright blinding light. Two beings, without shape or distinction, glided from the night sky. One white, the other golden, the seemed to fall to earth next to Rigel's holy figure. Confused, he steps in front of young Megan, as if to protect her. 

The lights began to dim, and they slowly faded into the shape of two teenage boys. Nearly identical but the shade difference in their glow puts them apart. They smile, and greet Rigel but he remains frozen in front of young Megan. 

They open their arms and laugh, gesturing for Rigel to come closer. Broken from his trance, he runs and leaps into the teenagers arms. Shoulders shaking are a telltale sign that Rigel is sobbing despite the complete silence in the forest. 

Still, young Megan sits frozen, staring ahead at the rising sun. The two teenagers point to the sun and then the sky, suggesting for them to leave. Rigel looks back at young Megan and furrows his brow. She knows that he wanted to take her with him, but the teens shook their heads. 

Rigel looks at young Megan curled in a ball on the earth before taking the teenagers hands. Together, their bodies returned to the form of light, but Rigel's was a beautiful blue. Their forms took to the sky and quickly disappeared with the rising sun.

When she woke, there was less uneasiness in her stomach, but more curiosity for what happened with her teenage lover. She began her day, but began to look forward to the nightly dreams. 

---

The third night, Megan went to be anxious. There needed to be truth in what she saw with her dreams. Rigel needed to still be out there. When she willed herself to sleep, there was so no tug of her body. At first, she didn't even think she was asleep. When she went to open her eyes, she was laying underneath the bed of stars upon Strawberry Rock. 

Carefully, she sat up, and looked around her. Everything stood frozen, no movement in tree branches, no dust was stirred from her repositioning. Nothing. When she looked to the stars again, a bright blue figure fell from to the Earth.

Morgan knew she should've been afraid, but she found comfort in the light. Soon, it dimmed, revealing the 18 year old boy she fell in love with. He smiled, "Hey Meg."

She rushed to her feet and embraced him. He laughed and pulled her close, tucking her head beneath her chin.

Without words, they let go, clasped their hands and sat on the top of the ledge.

"How? How are you here?"

Rigel laughed and marveled at her forwardness, "Honestly, I am not quite sure myself. But what I do know is that we don't have much time."

Megan watched him turn to look up at the night sky. She followed his gaze to see the Gemini constellation, "Your brothers... did you find them?"

"I did. There's something about Strawberry Rock, that no one could ever point out. The world is so surreal, and almost like we're on another planet," he turns to her. "Almost"

She stares at him expectantly, "What do you mean?"

He grabs her shoulders and gazes deep into her eyes, "Megan, this place is like a beacon, that connects our world to other worlds. My brothers were trying to find it, and I found it trying to find them. Come join me, please."

Megan's eyes gloss over, and her voice cracks, "This is crazy. I can't! This is a dream. This is just myself trying to find some explanation for you!"

Rigel hushes her and pushes her hair out of her face, "Meg, I am right here."

Megan rushes to her feet, "No you're not! You left, or disappeared, for whatever! But you are most definitely not here!" 

Her one wrong step, and it sends Megan over the cliff. Before she touches the ground, she wakes with a start. She sits up, panting in her bed, and stares at the clock. 2 am. On the dot

She pulls herself to her feet and trudges to the kitchen for a glass of water. She walks out to the balcony over the San Francisco Bay and looks at the stars. Typically, on a night like this, overcasts blocks the nightly lights but tonight, it was as if every star worked together to fight through these clouds and into the Bay Area. 

She sighs and continues to gaze, until she peers on one constellation, Gemini. She stares at it reluctantly until she realizes, there is a new star between the brother stars. An ever so bright and blue star, that twinkled when she finally sought it out. 

Megan spent the rest of the night watching Gemini shine. 

Each star, brighter than the one before. 

There are too many to count but don't worry.

They're just stars.